The Challenge Of Leading Leaders

November 16th, 2011

Developing leaders is hard! Leadership isn’t an add-water-and-stir proposition. It takes a long time, energy, and resources. Here’s why:

 

Leaders Are Hard To Find

How many people do you know who are really good leaders? They have influence. They make things happen. They see and seize opportunities. And they can attract, enlist, and rally people to perform with excellence. There just aren’t that many people capable of doing that on a consistent basis. Most people are followers. Thrust in a position of leadership, they quickly return to the ranks. Some are producers. Few are leaders. Leaders are like eagles – you find them one at a time.

 

Leaders Are Hard to Gather

Once you find leaders, drawing them in can be very difficult. They are entrepreneurial and want to go their own way. If you try to recruit them, they want to know where you’re going, how you plan to get there, who else you’re planning to take with you – and whether they can drive! What you are doing has to be more compelling than what they’re already doing.

On top of that, your organization needs to create an environment that is attractive to them. That is often not the case. Most organizations desire stability. Leaders desire excitement. Most organizations place a high value on following rules. Winners want to think outside the box. If you want to gather leaders, you must create a place where they can drive.

 

Leaders Are Hard To Keep

As hard as it is to find and gather good leaders, it’s even more difficult to keep them. The only way to lead leaders is to become a better leader yourself. If you keep growing and stay ahead of the people you lead, then you will be able to keep adding value to the leaders who follow you. Your goals must be to keep developing them so that they can realize their potential. Only a leader can do that for another leader, because it takes a leader to raise up another leader. If you keep adding value to the leaders that lead you, then they will be willing to stay with you. Do that long enough, and they may never want to leave.